In recent years, the unethical behavior of certified public accountants (CPAs) has become a matter of public concern (e.g., Shinjung Paper, Youngwon Telecom, Hanbo Steel, and the slush funds of former presidents). Despite the importance of this issue, research on the (un)ethical behavior of CPAs has been very limited. This paper reviews ethical theories from the field of ethics and the professional ethics regulations established by the Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants (KICPA), and explores measures to enhance CPAs' ethical awareness. In particular, this paper identifies problems with the current professional ethics regulations enacted by KICPA and the limitations of the current discipline-oriented ethics policy, and emphasizes the need to develop intrinsic factors of virtue ethics—namely justice, courage, and integrity—as an alternative. To this end, the current professional ethics regulations should be substantially revised, the ethics education provided as part of KICPA's continuing professional education should be significantly enhanced, and ethics education within university auditing courses should be particularly emphasized. If such efforts are not undertaken voluntarily by CPAs themselves, they will lose the trust of the general public, which will ultimately lead to strong skepticism toward the CPA profession itself.